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Unreported: Hamas Is Preying on Grieving Families in Gaza and Charging Money for Burials
A Palestinian Hamas terrorist shakes hands with a child as they stand guard as people gather on the day of the handover of Israeli hostages, as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
The PA’s official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, exposed how Hamas even exacts a price for death in Gaza, with its “mafia groups” demanding as much as 1,300 shekels (nearly $400) in bribes to allow bodies to be buried in cemeteries. Or, in the words of one Gazan, Hamas tells the people that “death is on us, the grave is on you.”
Headline: “In Gaza: Death is free, burial is 1,300 shekels!”
“Media figure Hazem Abu Hamid exposed a new catastrophe in the Gaza Strip: Mafias are asking the relatives of Martyrs for bribes to bury their sons, reaching 1,300 [Israeli] shekels [just under $400 – ed.] for a Martyr’s burial…
In a video he published on his Facebook page, Abu Hamid said: ‘I was walking near a cemetery in Gaza City when a young person stopped me and told me that one of his relatives died as a Martyr in an Israeli bombing, and that during the burial ceremony, people (he didn’t mention their identity) [parentheses in source] asked them for a sum of 1,300 shekels to allow the burial of their son in the cemetery.’ …
Abu Hamid demanded to stop this inhumane exploitation of the residents’ grief, as some of them were unable to bury their relatives in cemeteries and were forced to bury them in the streets and cover the graves with tin sheets…
Activist Abu Humam Al-Ma’am Jundiyeh directly blamed the Hamas Movement because it collects 500 shekels in the south [of Gaza] and 900 shekels (just under $250 – ed.) in the north [of Gaza] from the Martyr’s family for a grave. He mockingly said that ‘Hamas raises this banner: Death is on us, the grave is on you.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 29, 2025]
Although the PA’s damning reports about Hamas are made for political purposes, these internal Palestinian revelations nevertheless demonstrate how Hamas is robbing, abusing, and exploiting its own people, and even PA officials and journalists are being forced to speak in code just to survive long enough to report it.
While Israel is libeled daily as “starving Gaza,” the Palestinian Authority (PA) itself has also revealed that Hamas is the one systematically depriving the population of food and aid, terrorizing local businesses and institutions, and preying on grieving families for profit:
The [PA] presidential office expressed its opposition and sharp condemnation of the acts of looting and theft that gangs are committing in the warehouses of humanitarian aid that is being presented to our people in the Gaza Strip, foremost among them the Hamas gangs.
It emphasized that our Palestinian people will not forgive these gangs for their shameful crimes, which they are committing at its difficult time specifically in the Gaza Strip. The presidential office emphasized that all these gangs and those affiliated with them are known to our people, and that they will be at the top of the blacklist to hold them accountable and punish them by law at the appropriate time. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 3, 2025]
This condemnation by the PA follows a report from a PA TV correspondent in Gaza who described how “organized and armed gangs” steal from “merchants and international [aid] institutions.”
The reporter in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, which is still controlled by armed Hamas terrorists, could not specify that the gangs were from Hamas, but he made sure to hint it by saying these gangs are “in quotes, ‘robbers’ or ‘thugs’ in quotes.” He even accompanied it with a hand motion of quotes to stress the point.
Official PA TV reporter in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza: “There are organized and armed gangs whose members are masked. They roam the streets and places where there are many sales stalls, stores, and warehouses, regardless of who owns these warehouses. Whether they belong to merchants or international institutions, everything now serves as a target for what is now called in Gaza, in quotes, ‘robbers’ or ‘thugs’ in quotes.”
[Official PA TV, Reporters in the Field, May 4, 2025]
The matching language between the reporter in Gaza and the PA’s presidential office — with the use of terms such as “gangs,” “theft,” “robbers,” and “known to our people” coupled with an explicit accusation by the PA — seemingly confirms that the reporter is referring to Hamas gangs.
This is an official PA admission.
The PA is saying that Hamas is sabotaging the flow of aid. For context, in the 43 days of the most recent hostage release deal, Israel allowed in 25,200 aid trucks carrying 447,538 tons of aid and has allowed in close to 2 million tons of aid over the course of the war so far, according to a COGAT report.
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Unreported: Hamas Is Preying on Grieving Families in Gaza and Charging Money for Burials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.